Led by Emmy-nominated VFX supervisor Mahmoud Rahnama, the studio’s visual effects work spanned 1,100 shots done in just 11 months across four different facilities.
Leading design company, Pixomondo, has shared with AWN another great breakdown reel, and images, showcasing their high-end visual effects work on CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, which just garnered them an Emmy Award nomination for the season finale, “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2.”
According to Pixomondo, “We were the main VFX vendor on Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, delivering 1,100 shots in 11 months. Four different Pixomondo facilities and over 150 people globally worked on the show. Pixomondo Los Angeles was mainly responsible for previs. Both Stuttgart and Frankfurt were supporting the Toronto office where most of the work was done. The global team was led by VFX supervisor Mahmoud Rahnama in Toronto, who worked closely with the show’s VFX supervisors, Jason Zimmerman and Ante Dekovic.”
As you watch the reel, note the variety and degree of detail within the work: alien planets and environments, a host of starships and alien crafts including the venerable USS Enterprise and the show’s flagship USS Discovery, ship interiors and controls, epic space battles and a variety of interstellar explosions and resulting debris. Also be sure to check out the 10 before / after shots from the episode below.
Pixomondo shared that in order to deliver hundreds of shots every month while maintaining the high quality they’re known for, they had to make many changes to their pipeline. They turned to Unreal Engine for all previs work, and also setup the show in a way where compositors would get a lot more control in Nuke just so they could do many of the revisions in comp instead of going back to 3D.
They added that of all their Season 2 work, the last battle in the final episode, for which they were nominated, was the most challenging, as they ended up having to complete everything in only a few weeks.
This year's Emmy Awards ceremony is set for September 15 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
